The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1887-09-03
The THUGS OF JAeALpuR.

Ameer Aiis 700 Murders-A Prisoner
shows How tho strangling Was Done.
The theory that every man wears on
his coiintenancc the stamp of his nature
is true only within certain limits. Many
of the great criminals whom have seen
bore in their faces n terrible warning Of
what they were; but with the thugs Of
Jabalpur it is not 80. These human
vampires who now gather round me,
every one of whom has taken more lives
than any public executioner In Europe,
are to the outward eye set of quiet,
slouching, meager old men, who might
be gang of beggars. n group of harm
less village folk, a party of superannu-
ated native workmen, or anything on
earth but what they really are.
"That's the chief" whispers my
guide, pointing to small, lean, gray
beard with white turban, who is sitting
before the nearest hut, rocking child on
his knee, and strcking its thin little brown
face with the hand that has shed the
blood Of his fellow man like water.
"Ask him. I reioined, show many
murders he has committed"
A momentary CLEAN Of cunning
twinkles in the sunken eyes. The old
tiger is evidently suspicious, and stands
on his guard.
II cannot tell" he answers, with an
indifference which, under such circum-
stances, has in it something indescrib-
ably ghastly; II didn't keep count Of
them beyond hundred"
"Pretty well," mutters the inspector,
"but Col. Taylor prisoner, Ameer Ali,
owned to 700."
"He must have been nice young
man, that Ameer ALL" l observed.
"You remember his saying: we finally
decided to murder the men directly after
our evening prayers.
Just then noticed that the line Of
novels had gap in it every here and
there. as il hut had fallen or been
pulled down, and the inspector tells me,
with look Of unwonted awe upon his
bold, bluff face, that whenever one Of
these wretches dies his house is instantly
razed to the ground, as IL to efface his
very memory from the earth.
"Now, before we co." said to our
conductor, II mean to see for myself
how the strangling was done. Oblige me
by telling this man to put his moose round
my wrist, for ] don't care to trust him
with my throat"
The savage eagerness with which the
withered old skeleton obeys the call--as
If filled with fresh life even by the make
believe show of murder-is fearful to
see. Knotting small coin into the cor
ner of his handkerchief to give him n
sure hold, he slips the moose round my
arm, and then, bringing his knuckles to-
gether with sudden twist, gives my
wrist squeeze that almost makes the
bones crack.
The awful change that passes over his
face at that moment battles all descrip-
ton. His dull, filmy eyes seem to blaze
with hellfire, his sharp white teeth arc
laid bare in woltish grin, his shriveled,
corpse like features quiver with fero-
cious joy so fiendish that an actual demon
starting up before men could scarcely be
more appalling. The thought of that
face bending over some helpless man in
the gloomy depths Of the forest, just as
the fatal moose frightened, is altogether
too inuch for my nerves, and it is with a
long breath Of relief that find myself
outside the fatal inclosrire once more
David Ker in New York Mail and Ex-
Di,SS